THIS was the question posed to David Wright yesterday after the Mets won their seventh straight game, crushing the Pirates 8-4 at Citi Field.
TONIGHT’S PREVIEW: Braves at Mets
Who’s the best player in New York right now?
Wright didn’t hesitate. “Carlos Beltran,” he answered.
That was the answer I expected. For all the talk of Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Wright and Jose Reyes, Beltran is far and away the best player in New York, the top superstar. Never underestimate the value of a switch-hitting center fielder.
“He’s put us on his back and carried us,” Wright said.
All the way to first place. The Mets are the only team in the NL East with a winning home record (11-6). Compare that to the Yankees’ 6-7 mark at their home (run haven) and you can see the Mets are learning to make their big ballpark work for them.
They are starting to figure things out and Beltran, who is hitting .400 from the left side, is leading the way.
Beltran blasted a two-run double in the Mets’ four-run eighth yesterday, blowing the game open. There have been only two games this season in which Beltran was held hitless. He leads the NL with a .374 average.
“He’s on a mission,” manager Jerry Manuel said.
Manuel and Beltran said the success is a result of a spring training drill that focused on hitting the ball the other way. Beltran also worked hard over the winter to improve his hitting at his batting cage in his home.
The spring training drill, he said, “Got me in a habit where right now I think I can drive the ball to left-field. Before (batting left-handed) I used to guide the ball. It’s working for me.”
New York has not yet come to realize it, but Beltran is a driven player in his own way. Beltran is not one to go out of his way to praise himself. He is quiet, but he said he has a goal, a goal that best serves the Mets. He said he is not interested in being the best player in New York.
“You know what my goal is as a player,” he said. “I want to be the best center fielder in my league, and I work hard to accomplish that. When people talk about the best center fielder, I want to be there.”
As long as the Mets continue to get the kind of starting pitching they are getting, they will continue to roll because Beltran is far and away the best center fielder in his league.
Beltran admitted the Mets are winning this season against the weaker teams — a year ago this is the kind of game the Mets would have lost — because they have more of an edge. When Beltran stands in front of his locker after a game, he tries to give an honest answer. It may not always sizzle, but he does offer insight.
In the past against the Pirates and other poor teams, he admitted, the Mets assumed that they were going to win, instead of making it happen.
“You feel too relaxed,” Beltran said of those bad old days. “You might go out there thinking, ‘Well, we’re going to score five and win this ballgame.’ That’s something we talked about as a team and we’ve done a pretty good job this year.”
Now the Mets are adding extra runs in the late innings to make it happen.
His double came using a pink bat in honor of Mother’s Day and to raise awareness in the fight against breast cancer.
Beltran has used the Mother’s Day pink bat every year it has been offered. Every year he takes one of his pink game bats and mails it to his mother back home in Puerto Rico.
“I know today she was watching the game and she always waits for that bat,” Beltran said with a big smile.
Special delivery from one special player, the best player in New York.